Share this with

The jail system is in “serious crisis” and the Home Office has failed to carry out proper planning, the prisons watchdog said.

Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers warned that there was no easy way out of the overcrowding problem in English and Welsh jails.

She accused ministers of building an ark after the flood and of ignoring repeated warnings.

Publishing her annual report, Ms Owers said: “I can’t say other than we have a serious crisis and one which is impacting on the ability of prisons to do rehabilitation. It is also making prisons riskier places to run.

“It is normally considered good practice to build an ark before the flood rather than during it or after it. This means long-term planning and planning which in my view should have happened a long time ago.”

She added: “I cannot see an easy way out of this in the immediate future.”

There may be some temporary measures such as finding alternative punishments for women offenders or better handling of foreign inmates, she suggested. But she went on: “I worry at the moment that as fast as quick-build units will be put up, they will be filled.”

It was the first time the Chief Inspector had used such strong language about the condition of prisons.

Her report pointed out that jail inspections carried out last year had shown declining standards in general, after a previous period of improvement.

She said in her introduction to the document: “We have seen too many local prisons recently whose cultures and practices are sliding back, or failing to improve. These are only straws in the wind – but the wind does not appear to be blowing in the right direction.”